Lucid Dreaming:
Hallucinations and Alternate Realities from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation
Throughout history, artists have consistently prompted viewers to see the world through a different lens. They have inspired us to consider the difference between how things appear and how they could exist in an alternate, future, or augmented reality. Lucid Dreaming presents works by artists who provoke us to think about the world we live in, the ground we stand on, and to take another look at the physical and psychological world we previously thought of as fixed, as something more flexible and capable of change.
The exhibition includes the work of pioneering, innovative and upcoming artists in digital and media art, including Terry Adkins, AES+F, Refik Anadol, Laurie Anderson, Cory Arcangel, Jim Campbell, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, R. Luke DuBois, Ólafur Elíasson, Carla Gannis, Lee Nam Lee, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, Ragnar Kjartansson, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Jamie Nares, Tony Oursler, Paul Pfeiffer, Hiraki Sawa, UVA (United Visual Artists), Leo Villareal, and Yuge Zhou.
Organized by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, Lucid Dreaming was curated by Kathleen Forde (Director and Curator of Media Arts, Thoma Foundation), with support from Meagan Robson (Collections Manager, Thoma Foundation).
Header Image: Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, “Broker,” 2016. Single-channel 4K video (color, sound). Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Image © Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, courtesy of the artists and the Carl & Marilyn Thoma Foundation.
Featured Work
AES+F, Inverso Mundus, 2015.
Single-channel 4K video (color, sound). Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Image © AES+F, courtesy of the artists.
Ólafur Elíasson, Eye see you, 2006.
Stainless steel, aluminum, color-effect filter glass, mono-frequency bulb. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Photo by Christian Uchtmann, © Ólafur Elíasson, courtesy of the artist and Studio Ólafur Elíasson, Berlin.
Carla Gannis, The Garden of Emoji Delights, 2014.
Single-channel 4K video (color, silent). Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Photo by Jamie Stukenberg, © Carla Gannis, courtesy of the artist and the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation
Ragnar Kjartansson, Burning House, 2015.
Single-channel digital video (color, sound). Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Image © Ragnar Kjartansson, courtesy of the artist and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik.
Lee Nam Lee, Cartoon Folding Screen II, 2010.
Five-channel digital video (color, sound), five monitors in custom frames, custom electronics. Collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Photo by Lee Nam Lee, © Lee Nam Lee, courtesy of the artist and ArtPark.